local
prices of wages and commodities. Looking at these from an English point
of view, it has been too much the custom to consider them as dependent
on English conditions. There is, however, very little contact between
what may be called the English system of prices and the Indian system
of prices.
The
contact is effected by the export from India to England of sugar,
coffee, rice, cotton, jute, &c, the prices of which for export are
determined by the London or European market prices. This, however,
exercises very little influence on the main bulk of the agricultural
crops of India.
Far
different are the relations between England and the countries on the
adjoining seas, Ireland to the west and the shores to the east and
south. Every pound of meat, every fowl, every egg, each pound of
butter, and all fresh vegetables or fresh fruits are liable to be taken
up for the great markets of London and Paris, the prices of which, with
the cost of transport, govern those of the outlying districts. Hence
the general complaints of the growing dearness of living in the large
and small towns, and which lends not to a levelling of prices in the
proper sense, but to an augmentation of price to the higher standard.
Within
each region, the completeness of railway transit contributes to such
results, and the seas are bridged by steam transport, also penetrating
the rivers, the prices of food effect the prices of labour' to a
considerable extent, and modify the operation of other causes. The
Irish labourer, who, half a century ago received 4d to 6d per day, or
Indian wages, now received 2s or more.
In
India, as has been pointed out by me, in common with others, similar
results have, of late years, been seen in operation, but they have not
reached their full development, and must, therefore, continue until it
has been attained. This is the point to which the attention of
economists must be turned, because the quicker or slower rate of this
development means the earlier or later attainments of an advanced
condition by the population of Indies, and the consequent rate of
public revenue.
So
long as the great disparity of rate of prices between India and England
exists, there must be a disturbance of all economical relations. There
must be a really abnormal relation of imports and exports, an abnormal
disproportion between the amount remitted to England and the rest of
the revenue of India, a false relation between the supply of capital to
India and its returns.
Taking
this last head alone, India labours under great disadvantages as
compared with many other countries. If a railway be made, say in the
United States with English capital, then the returns can be calculated
upon at something like English prices. In India this is not so; the
railway iron and machinery shipped from England is of the same
indentical cost, but the carriage of commodities and of passengers has
to be undertaken on a scale wholly different. No question arises
elsewhere, for instance as to the carriage of passengers at 2 pice per
mile. In some countries it is impossible to charge an anna or two as
here at home.
That,
in many classes of enterprise, where the amount of traffic, or
transport, or commodities dealt with in India would, at what may be
called normal rates produce a good return, in India they give an
insufficient money yield, the undertaking becomes impossible with
profit, or without a guarantee burdensome to the Government, and the
abundant capital of the European markets is not applied to India, while
it is freely available for alien countries, which have no claim on
English sympathies, in Brazil or in Chili.
It is the rise of prices now g nag on
in India, and already referred to, which will act independently and
concurrently affect the situation, dominate the commercial and
financial conditions. It is, therefore, perfectly futile to talk of the
application of great economical lands, when we neglect the
circumstances on which their operation depends.
The development of gold working means the development of English
